What would make you willing to take a chance on a rod bender?
 

This one is is my town....so I may take a look just for fun:

1993 300SD "Runs and Drives nicely, New Tires, Rebuilt Transmission, New Brakes. Low Miles No Rust AC works." 90k miles.

Asking $8500, which of course he won't get.

And why a tranny would have to be rebuilt with such low mileage is anyone's guess.

So what would be a low enough price to make you willing to roll the dice?

Well look at see what #cylinder head it has (I think it would have had a #17 originally?), and if it has a reman engine (tag on bellhousing).

-J

Knock about eight thousand off that asking price and I'd be willing to play the rodbender game.

Maybe 5k? It all depends on the cars condition and what head it has.

I'll check it out and report back.

I've taken a chance on two of them. Have a spare OM603, 3.0 in the garage. Alternatively, consider a S320. Lower cost per mile for fuel.

A low enough price to be able to source and install a new engine if/when the current one craps out.

The A/C
 

Has the evaporator on the A/C been fixed because that is hard and 24 labor hours to fix it if you are good. I can remove and install the engine in the time it takes to get the Evaporator out!

I had one once, and my radiator and trans cooler decided they wanted to trade fluids. Pink was the color and I noticed it when it started to shift I a poor manor. That is my guess for the automatic rebuild. At this point it is 20 years old.